


Don't Jump the Gun

by benjaminrussell



Series: Shadow of the Templar Week 2017 [6]
Category: Shadow of the Templar - M. Chandler
Genre: Alternate Universe - Thieves, Alternative Universe - FBI, Gen, the team are thieves and jeremy is an fbi agent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-16
Updated: 2017-09-16
Packaged: 2018-12-30 12:33:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12108825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/benjaminrussell/pseuds/benjaminrussell
Summary: SotT Week 2017 Day 6: Thieves AUJeremy and Annabelle's latest case is to track down a murder suspect, however Jeremy is convinced that the man didn't do it and is instead being framed.





	Don't Jump the Gun

Jeremy approached the front door of the warehouse where the intel they’d received said his suspect was holed up. He and Annabelle had been tasked by their boss at the FBI to hunt down the thief codenamed Templar because he was the chief suspect in an ongoing murder investigation, and the latest intel suggested this was his current hideout. Jeremy had his doubts that Templar, aka Simon Drake, was actually involved in the murder because something about the case against Simon just didn’t sit quite right with him. It was nothing he could put his finger on, otherwise he would have reported it, but his gut said Simon was innocent. Hopefully he could prove it if he could just find the thief and speak to him, although he was well aware that that in itself probably wouldn’t be easy. He waited until he got confirmation that his partner was in place at the rear of the warehouse, and then used his lock pick gun on the door, which okay yeah wasn’t standard issue but did come in pretty handy, and quietly entered the building. He kept his gun trained on the floor in front of him as he moved through the warehouse, searching the rooms around the edge one by one before venturing into the main area and weaving his way around what was left of the machinery that had presumably once filled the place. Now the building was mostly empty aside from several years’ worth of dirt and rubbish, leaving a dusty echoing void and Jeremy wondering what it was that used to be produced there.

A creak from behind him made Jeremy spin around. He put his foot down and in the back of his mind registered a quiet crunch of paper, before the next thing he knew the world turned upside down, see-sawing wildly, and something was digging sharply into his ankle. He forced himself to go still, knowing that flailing around would just make him swing more, and then hooked the other foot around the caught one and slowly bent at the middle until he could reach up and grab hold of his ankle with his free hand. Thankfully he hadn’t dropped his gun, or worse, fired it as the trap yanked him up into the air. Because that’s what it was he realised, now the shock had worn off and common sense returned – the rubbish on the floor had been hiding a simple snare trap that had been set up with rope thick enough to hold a person, and in stepping on the rubbish he’d activated the trap. On the plus side, he could be fairly sure that Simon was here if he’d set up traps to defend his hideout, but this certainly wasn’t how Jeremy had wanted to meet the thief. As soon as his pendulous motion slowed enough that he could focus on his surroundings once more, he registered faint footsteps coming towards him. He’d half been expecting company, however there were definitely several people approaching, which he had not been. He knew that Simon used to work with a partner, before they betrayed him in an explosive mess of a job involving the Russian mafia that led to the hacker fleeing the country and Simon laid up in a prison hospital. Jeremy slowly tilted his head to the side so he could see around his legs and immediately recognised Simon, who came to a stop a few metres away, flanked by a lithe blonde woman and a red haired guy wearing possibly the most garish shirt Jeremy had ever seen, who was paying more attention to the tablet in his hand than anything else, including Jeremy hanging upside down from the ceiling. They both looked vaguely familiar, but he couldn’t place where he recognised them from.

“I feel like we’re about to watch some sort of acrobatic stripper show,” A voice from behind him said, to which the woman rolled her eyes and someone else behind him made a strangled noise. He leant his head back until he could see three more men – a smirking Japanese guy who presumably had made the comment, a faintly blushing young blonde man, and hanging further back, a weather beaten guy chewing on a toothpick. They also looked familiar, and then it hit Jeremy where he knew them from – old case files he’d poured through back when he was new to the bureau. Now he knew where he recognised them all from, he could recall their names and jobs. With Simon there was Sandra Leone, a thief known for her impressive martial arts skills, and Dave Brasshoff, a hacker who was most recently suspected of being behind a leak that exposed that a large pharmaceutical company was artificially raising the prices of some of their paediatric medicines. The three guys behind him were Mike Takemura, a grifter and getaway driver; Nate Waxman, an exceptional safe expert; and Johnny Pilgrim, an ex-army sniper turned extraction specialist. Simon had put himself together quite a team. When Jeremy looked back at Simon, Dave had handed him his tablet, and he was looking at Jeremy with undisguised curiosity.

“You’re an interesting guy for a FBI agent, Jeremy Archer,” He stated, gaze flicking back and forth between whatever was displayed on the tablet and Jeremy himself.

“For one thing, cops don’t usually pick the lock when entering a building.”

“That’s my goal in life, to be interesting,” Jeremy replied drily, “Now are you going to let me down or do I need to free myself?”

“I vote we make him escape so we can watch and laugh,” Mike suggested, “It’ll be hilarious.”

“I just want to talk,” Jeremy added, in an attempt to convince them he wasn’t going to try and arrest them as soon as he got free. The fact that none of them had drawn a gun on him yet, or even threatened him, supported Jeremy’s theory that Simon wasn’t the murderer – he’d never killed anyone before, and by all accounts he had no reason to want the victim dead. Now it seemed like neither he nor his associates were violent. He did wonder where Annabelle was, but he was pretty sure that his partner was okay. It went against everything he knew about Simon that he’d hurt someone, unless maybe he had no other choice, and all he and Annabelle were doing was trying to find information about the murder of someone who from what they could tell had been a mentor figure to Simon. Jeremy slowly put his gun away, telegraphing his movements, and made sure the holster clasp was securely fastened so the gun didn’t just fall back out. Simon and Sandra exchanged looks, and while Jeremy couldn’t exactly read their body language, it was clear they were debating whether to trust him or not.

“As much as I’d like to see how you’d get out of that, I think we’ve got some important things to talk about,” Simon finally decided, nodding to one of the guys behind Jeremy. A few moments later the rope jerked, so Jeremy let go of his ankle and uncoiled, stretching his arms out below him ready to catch himself. Instead of the rope just being released, he was lowered down until his fingers touched the ground, and from there he was able to let his feet fall forwards and use the momentum to spring to his feet.

“Are we sure he’s not a cat burglar?” Someone asked.

“Another life maybe,” Jeremy murmured, before he turned his gaze on Simon and said, “I’m here about the murder of Warren Carstairs.” He held his hand up to quieten the sudden outburst of muttering at his words, and continued, “I don’t think you did it, but someone is doing a good job of framing you for it, and I think you might have an idea of who that might be.” There was another exchange of significant looks between the thieves, before Simon again spoke for the group, “You’re right. A guy called Norton Fowles killed my mentor. He’s hated him ever since they were teenagers performing card tricks on the street, and when Carstairs pulled off the heist of a lifetime, Fowles couldn’t stand it and hired a hitman to take him out. He didn’t even do it himself.” The disgust and hatred and grief were all evident in Simon’s expression, and given that the explanation fitted all the facts Jeremy had, he was convinced that it was the truth.

“He can help us,” Johnny stated, in his low rumbling baritone. Sandra nodded in agreement and said, “Together I think we can prove it.” There were murmurs of agreement from Mike and Nate as well, so Jeremy said, “I’d like to bring my partner in too. You can trust her.”

“I sent her on a wild goose chase, but if she comes back I promise not to do it again,” Mike snickered.

“What?” Dave belatedly asked, looking up from the smart phone Jeremy hadn’t noticed him produce.

“We’re teaming up with the feds,” Nate replied gleefully, “Think of all the tech they can get their hands on.” Simon rolled his eyes and with an air of finality decreed, “Let’s do this thing.”

**Author's Note:**

> I just had to have the parallel between Simon and Jeremy's first meeting here and the scene from The Morning Star.
> 
> Also I imagine that in this AU Ethan is a dual US-UK citizen, and when he adopted Bran and then Jeremy they were able to become US citizens too, which is how Jeremy is able to join the FBI.


End file.
